Media Appearances for Dr. Fran Walfish

When spouses clash over Christmas

(CNN) — The tree is twinkling, carolers are singing, eggnog is flowing and your spouse is … hunkered down in the other room, counting the seconds until the season is over. Can’t he or she just suck it up and make with the merry? After all, who doesn’t love the holidays?

Plenty of folks, to their yearly consternation, find themselves in mixed humbug/holly-jolly relationships. It can prove to be a great stressor to those on both sides of the holiday celebration divide, with resentments, disappointments and wounded feelings that keep the atmosphere chilly, even after the season’s snow has melted.

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A healthy relationship based on mutual trust is every parent's wish. The bond between infant and parent is a natural phenomenon, but as children reach their preteens and form their own personalities, fireworks between the child and parent can ensue. Drawing on 20 years of clinical experience and new theories on attachment, family therapist and consultant to Parents magazine, Dr. Fran Walfish argues that parents need to distinguish their own personality types in order to make more informed decisions about how they interact and raise their own children.